Early voting is underway in the U.S. Senate contest between the Republican incumbent, Sen. Ted Cruz, and his Democratic challenger, Congressman Colin Allred. Reporters around Cruz’s hometown of Houston and Allred’s congressional seat in Dallas asked voters what they think of the candidates and what issues matter to them the most.
If there’s a common theme in why some Houston-area voters cast their votes for Cruz, it’s immigration and border security. That’s the message from Republican voters at West Houston’s Trini Mendenhall Community Center.
“The important stuff he’s been talking about is the border,” said David Bracken. “We’ve got so many illegals coming over here trying to take over our country, and he’s fighting, and whatever Red — what’s his name, the other guy that’s trying to take his spot? No.”
Sharon Kane, who used to live along the Texas-Mexico border, also considers border security her main concern. But she added that Allred’s commercials attacking Cruz’s stance on abortion were grating on her nerves.
“The Supreme Court put the abortion issue back to the states, and Cruz is in the Senate, federal Senate,” Kane said. “So, how could he necessarily control what the state legislature did? So, I think that’s a false narrative there.”
Kane added that she didn’t trust Allred because of his voting record. “I don’t think that Allred has been very truthful about a lot of stuff that he’s done,” she said. “He’s voted with [former House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi 100% of the time. And I’m opposed to so much of the stuff the Democrats have pushed.”
For Kelly Holmes, support for Cruz came down to a simple question of partisanship. “I think that he’s been a good supporter of [former President Donald] Trump, because I believe that everything has been weaponized against Trump,” Holmes said. “I know he’s not everybody’s favorite flavor, but … I like him for Texas. I like that he’s a conservative.”
Jason McClure, at the Tom Reid Library in Pearland, south of Houston, said one of the major factors influencing his vote for Cruz was the senator’s commercials attacking Allred’s record of voting for transgender rights.
“Some of the things I was hearing about Allred — and I’m believing what I’m hearing from the Cruz campaign about the transgender this, that, and the other thing, and he’s pro-men in girls’ sports, I’m not for that,” McClure said. “If I knew there was a biological male on my daughter’s sports team or whatever, I would throw a fit.”
Reid Library voter Gabriel Jackson said he was suspicious of Allred’s record, and he questioned where Allred was getting his funding. “I’m not a big fan of Cruz either,” Jackson said. “I think he’s pompous. I’m right down the middle, but I know what Colin Allred is capable of doing with voting, so, [voting for Cruz] was an easy decision for me.”
But for others, it was Cruz who was too extreme. Keith Davis was the rare pro-Allred voter at West Houston’s Trini Mendenhall Community Center. “We need new leadership,” Davis said. “Just as many people are leaving [Texas as] are coming. And that should indicate something. Texans like myself, who was born and raised in Texas, ought to be stay ing and ought to be growing here in Texas. That’s not happening.”
Natalie Weber
/
Houston Public Media
Vijay Kane, who spoke at a Diwali celebration in Sugar Land, southwest of Houston, didn’t sound particularly enthusiastic about Allred’s record. But he felt Cruz lacked a mind of his own. “He just basically rubber stamps everything that Trump does,” Vijay Kane said. “The man is a brilliant man, highly educated, and some of the things that come out of his mouth, I wonder, did this man really go to law school?”
And while some Houston voters are willing to buy Cruz’s arguments that abortion is a decision for the state legislature, others remember the senator’s record of votes and speeches stretching back long before the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“I think he’s just a waste,” said Yolanda Brown, who voted at Pearland’s Tom Reid Library. “It’s more than just abortion. Reproductive rights — we have women out here dying, Black women especially. I just think that it’s so wrong.”
There are plenty of voters who still hold Cruz’s actions during the 2021 winter storm against him, such as Nicole and Michael McCarthy, who voted at the BakerRipley Center in Houston’s East End.
“I just don’t think that Ted Cruz has the best interest of any Texan at heart. I think that Ted Cruz runs for Ted Cruz. And honestly, I know it was, what, three years ago that he went to Cancun during ‘Snowvid,’ but that really says a lot,” Nicole McCarthy said.
“We still remember freezing in our apartment, seeing pictures of Ted Cruz going to Cancun,” Michael McCarthy said. “I know there are bigger issues at stake, but I just don’t think that he is a leader for Texas.”
Cassandra Combre, who voted at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston’s Third Ward, sounded a similar note. “First of all, when I’m freezing, don’t go to Cancun and act like you really have my interests at heart, which personally,” Combre said, “I don’t feel like you really do.”
Fellow Wheeler Avenue voter Linda McGee said the most important issues to her are abortion, voting rights, and immigration. She had a simple message for Cruz: “Go home. That’s what I’d like to see him do. Go home and stay home. He hates women. He hates minorities. I agree with nothing, none of his politics.”
Dallas voters who said they were backing Allred consistently brought up character and a desire for more bipartisan collaboration among lawmakers in Washington.
Kate Cavanaugh lives in Highland Park. The day of the lone debate between Cruz and Allred, she was shopping at a Trader Joe’s right by Hillcrest High School, Allred’s alma-mater.
Cavanaugh said a perfect candidate to her would have, “a breadth and width of character, which includes decency, honesty” — qualities she said she didn’t see in Ted Cruz.
“Nobody’s perfect, and somebody who is not characterized by character assassination, and who is not characterized by dehumanization, and is not characterized by self-serving decisions masked by policy making decisions,” said Cavanaugh.
Zach Thomas was inside the store shopping for groceries, and held the same thoughts. And like some people in Houston, he also brought up 2021’s winter storm.
“We’re good on Ted Cruz. Colin Allred is where it’s at,” said Thomas. “You don’t leave your state in a state of panic. He’s been in office over a decade and has nothing to show for it.”
Colleen Logan was heading to a hair salon a few stores over. She too said she was voting for Allred.
“I’ve known Colin Allred since he’s been a football player. He’s always been, from my perspective, a man of values, a man who is committed to, again, raising people up, not smashing them down,” said Logan.
But, of course, having a candidate hail from the city you call home doesn’t outweigh party loyalty. Take Frank Campise. He’s a Republican voter who cast his ballot for Cruz earlier this week at the Lochwood Library in East Dallas. Campise likes Cruz’s tough stance on the border, his top issue this election.
“My grandfather came into this country from Italy, so I get it but there’s a process and I think you have to go through that process,” said Campise. “You just can’t just open the door because you don’t know what’s coming in. But I’m all for people coming into the country in the correct way.”
Maddie Sepcic, a Republican who was shopping near Hillcrest High, said she planned to vote for Cruz and hadn’t even heard of Allred.
“For me, it’s just always been easiest — because I lean more on that side and I believe more of their interests are aligned with mine — that it’s just easier for me to just go in and out and vote all Republican.”
Celia Naples, who said she’d been a Dallas resident for 12 years, also voted in East Dallas and cast her ballot for Allred.
“He’s been my [U.S. House] Rep. and he’s a great, great guy. He works really hard. He works across the aisle. I don’t think we could ask for a better senator,” said Naples.
When it got to more specific issues, Jaime Rodriguez said the top issue to him was abortion.
“Well, I have a daughter so I’m conscious about the changes in abortion,” said Rodriguez. “I think the other thing that the U.S. needs is to change the politics back to be more collaborative. It’s okay to disagree but we don’t have to really be us [versus] them, we’re all one country really.”
Whoever wins, though, Cruz voter Frank Campise had this closing thought.
“I wish there were better candidates on both sides. I think that’s really what it comes down to,” said Campise.
Of course, this is just a sample of Dallas and Houston voters. In 2020, more than 11 million Texans cast ballots, and polls show Cruz in the lead.
Copyright 2024 KUT 90.5